The Three of Us

33. Getting Accustomed to Not Being Alone

"The Thing moved," Anne told Marilla and Matthew as they were just sitting down to dinner. They both looked up at her in surprise.

"Moved?" Marilla asked. "You felt it kick?" This information was such news that she did not think to scold Anne for referring to it as The Thing.

Anne nodded miserably. "I was just sitting there with Gilbert and suddenly there It was. Kicking away like it was playing ball. I poked at it and it stopped. Maybe I just have to keep poking at it to make it be still."

"Anne," Marilla scolded. "Don't do that. What if you hurt it?"

"Is poking at it going to hurt it?" Anne asked.

Marilla hesitated. "Well, I don't know. But don't poke at it anyway! Why would you do such a thing? Kicking is perfectly normal, all babies do that."

"I know," Anne said miserably. "But I don't like it."

Matthew said gently, "It won't be forever."

Anne smiled kindly at him. She knew he just wanted her to feel better. She reached for the peas and dumped an enormous scoop onto her plate. "I've decided to eat more. To make less room in there for moving."

Matthew laughed at this.

"Well, I'm glad if you'll eat more, anyway," Marilla commented, handing Anne the butter. You haven't been eating enough since you've been home. Rachel Lynde told me when you're expecting you're supposed to eat twice as much, because you're eating for two."

"Then I want two pieces of cake, instead of one," Anne announced.

--

Rachel Lynde told Anne that it was good the baby was kicking. "It's supposed to, and I'd be worried if it didn't! You're really feeling it quite a bit late, you know. Of course, that's sometimes how it is with a first pregnancy," she said with an air of wisdom. "Subsequent pregnancies you feel it sooner- likely just because you know what you're looking for, by then. It comes much sooner than a big kick- it starts out as tiny little flutters-"

"Flutters?" Anne repeated, horrified. "I felt little flutters ages ago! I thought it was indigestion! I didn't know that was a baby. ...I didn't know until it kicked me!"

"There, you see, everything is as it should be. The little mite is perfectly fine."

"Isn't there a way to make it stop?" Anne begged. "I tried poking at it, but it just kept on!"

"Poking it will make it move more, not less," Rachel said with a shake of her head.

"Then what can I do?" Anne wanted to know.

"You can be glad it's healthy," she said firmly.

Anne pouted.

--

While Anne lay in bed, the baby moved.

Stop, she silently told it.

Then, thinking that maybe it could not hear her inside her head, she whispered aloud into the dark, "Stop."

But it did not stop, She poked at it, but that didn't stop it. She pushed her pillow over it, but it kept kicking her.

"You're being mean to me. Go to sleep and stop bothering me."

She felt like crying. She just wanted to be alone in her own bed in her room, but now with the baby making itself known, she could not be alone anywhere she went.